Huskers in the WNBA: Season Review

Former Husker All-Americans Kelsey Griffin (Connecticut) and Jordan Hooper (Tulsa) saw their 2014 WNBA seasons come to an with the conclusion of the regular season over the weekend.

Griffin, who completed her fifth season with Connecticut, helped the Sun end the year on a winning note with an 84-55 pounding of the Eastern Conference's top team, Atlanta. Griffin finished with three points, five rebounds, three steals and one assist in 17 minutes off the bench Sunday to help the Sun finish the year with a 13-21 record.

For the season, Griffin averaged 4.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 0.8 assists and 0.5 blocks per game in just over 19 minutes of action per contest. She played in 31 games with 10 starts. So far in her WNBA career, Griffin has played 164 games with 71 starts for the Sun.

Hooper and the young Shock stayed in the playoff hunt into the final week of the season, but came up short in a pair of contests last week. Hooper managed three points on three free throws in Saturday's regular-season finale at Minnesota. The Shock dropped an 80-63 decision to the Lynx to finish with a 12-22 record on the season.

On Friday, Hooper managed three points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of a 92-76 loss at Atlanta. The 6-2 forward from Alliance, Neb., ended her rookie season by averaging 5.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 19 minutes per game. She played in all 34 games for the Shock, including one start.

Hooper and Griffin will enjoy a few weeks off before continuing their professional careers overseas. Griffin begins her third season with the Bendigo Spirit in the WNBL in Australia. One of the top players in the league, Griffin, former Husker teammate Chelsea Aubry, and the rest of the Spirit will pursue their third straight WNBL title in 2015.

Aubry will enter her sixth season with the Spirit and her seventh season as a professional. The captain of the 2012 Canadian Olympic Team has played 121 career games with the Spirit, averaging 8.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in her career.

Hooper will begin her first season in Europe with Besiktas in Turkey.

Former Husker and WNBA point guard Lindsey Moore is scheduled to spend the 2014-15 season in Australia. Moore is set to head to the WNBL on Sept. 1 to join her West Coast Waves team for the first time. Moore was a reserve point guard for the 2013 WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx and was a member of the Lynx for the first half of the 2014 season. She was a first-round pick of the Lynx in 2013.

Former Husker Yvonne Turner is also set to embark on her fifth professional season. A teammate of both Griffin and Moore on the 2010 Big 12 champion Huskers, Turner spent the 2013-14 season in Turkey with Antakya (12.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.9 apg) after a strong 2012-13 season in Russia with Dynamo GUVD (14.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.4 apg). She spent the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons in Australia with the Bundaberg Bears in the QBL. Turner has earned spots in WNBA training camps in both 2013 (San Antonio) and 2014 (Chicago).